The People's Voice
Giving regular theatre-goers an opportunity to have their say on theatre of all kinds.

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NOVEMBER 9
Brooklyn Ley checked out Rent at the Star Theatres in Hilton on November 7. The show is produced by Catchy Title Productions as part of the Adelaide Feast Festival...

Stand out performers: Whitney Boyd (Maureen), Rod Schultz (Collins) and Deanna Farnell (Joanne).

The beauty of Rent is its simplicity. This is where this production went wrong.

Normally Rent is an almost bare stage, highlighted by 1-3 metallic tables which are used throughout the show to represent, among other things, a couch, a door, a bed, even a table. Why you would choose to add in sets and furniture when you could have legitimately gotten away with only using tables is a mystery. Further to this, the table/s were ignored for the entire of Act 1 until 'La Vie Boheme', but then they were used for various purposes in Act 2 and it now didn’t make sense.

For a lot of the show the stage too crowded, normally with unnecessary actors. Often there was too much happening on stage which took away from the main focus. The quiet and still moments of the show were ruined by ensemble members walking across the stage (early in Act 1 I asked by sister ‘Why are there random people walking through their loft?’) or cast members sitting in the background moving around (anyone who has seen Rent on Broadway or a similar high level production knows that of the characters are even onstage at all they are normally frozen in place or not moving much. They certainly don't play fight on the couch!). In songs like Halloween where Mark is meant to feel completely isolated and alone the stage was so full with actors, that he was squished off to one side, so it was hard to buy the character’s desolation while he was completely surrounded by people!

There were also unnecessary moments throughout the show which seemed like the production was trying too hard to be clever or like the audience needed parts spelled out to us. The show opened which Benny holding a leash whistling for Evita, at the beginning of 'Tango: Maureen' a couple came out and tangoed and in 'Over The Moon' two ensemble members came out dressed as a cow (more on that later.) All of this was completely unnecessary and detracted from the show.

This was the second night of the run (Thursday 6th of November was a special HIV/AIDS Fundraising night) and it seemed like they still needed a bit more time on the stage and with the band. Often the music and/or singing was too loud and drowned out important plot points and there was a lot of trouble with pacing. On more than one occasion an actor sped up his or her lines and left the band way behind. Often cues came too early, leading to lines being skipped. There was also the occasional missed or messed up line and actors walking into props (or indeed the stage itself, unfortunately my highlight from Angel – played by James Christopher Reed – was when he ran into a pole at the end of Happy New Year B.)

Angel was played too over the top. Angel is pure. Yes she hams it up as Pussy Galore in Happy New Year, but he was hamming it the whole time. You're meant to take Angel seriously and not see her as some sort of spazzed out drag queen the whole time. It made it hard to feel for Angel like you’re supposed to and made Act 2 hard to believe when things suddenly get somber. Further, the dance break for 'Today 4 U' isn’t meant to resemble Galinda’s dancing in 'Popular' (Wicked)!

Mark (Josh Brittain) was played too playful and was even flirty. Which was weird to say the least. He was perky and often came off as smug. He was also too young for the friendship between he and Roger to be believable, looking more like Roger’s kid brother than his best friend. This also affected Act 2, as it was hard to buy the character or the friendship in 'Goodbye Love' and the surrounding moments. This was also the case with Mimi (Ruth Blythman) she had a sweet voice but she played Mimi too slutty and skanky the whole time. Mimi has an innocence and vulnerability, which was never shown and thus it was hard to connect with her, once again leading to events in Act 2 to not feel credible. It just wasn’t easy to see and feel how the characters had gotten to that point.

The Director and Producers made some interesting choices throughout, often during the Voicemail segments. They also took a lot from the movie instead of staying true to the stage version. The biggest moment of consternation for me was when they had Angel die a song early. But the good part about the sheet already being used by Contact was that we RentHeads finally got to see what Mark was doing under the sheet!

On a more positive note, the singing talents of the cast were solid and impressive.

Whitney Boyd was fierce and powerful as Maureen. She played the part with the exact right level of sex appeal and humour. Considering she was a re-cast I can’t imagine how they could have done better, especially knowing as well that Whitney had been suffering from a cold all week. It is a shame that her amazing performance of 'Over The Moon' was ruined by the entrance of two ensemble members dressed as a cow and dancing in the background as it completely distracted the audience from Whitney’s powerhouse performance. Deanna Farnell was also brilliant as Joanne; she had an amazing voice and great characterization of the character. The stand out song of the night was 'Take Me Or Leave Me' as both girls tore it up. The only thing that would have made that performance even greater was if they had directed more of the song to each other as opposed to out to the audience.

Rod Schultz gave us an adorable and earnest Collins, and was truly believable in his character. He also has a beautiful voice.

It was also a nice touch that they change the names of the group members in Life Support in every performance to names of real South Australian's who have died of HIV/AIDS.